Chapter Text
Tasha Davenport frowned as she looked down at the paperwork in front of her. The two words capitalised in bold at the top of the page stared back at her as if simultaneously daring and mocking her and the choice she had to make.
DIVORCE AGREEMENT
It was a bittersweet moment.
She loved Donald, or perhaps she loved who she had believed him to be but a man who refused to apologise for what he had done wasn’t a man she was willing to love. Tasha could never love a man who would so readily abandon his son for the sake of something as inconsequential as pride.
They had been separated for almost three months if she was correct.
Three entire months.
For three months, she had hoped that he would give up, that he would apologise and beg for Chase’s forgiveness (not that she thought he would be deserving of it) but it didn’t surprise her that it had been radio silent on her husband’s end.
She remembered the day that Bree and Adam had come home. The eldest had headed straight for the lab and sequestered himself in his capsule, refusing to leave for fear of Donald’s ranting and raving about Chase. Bree had launched herself into Tasha’s arms, uncharacteristically sobbing into her mother’s shoulder.
Tasha remembered glaring over at her husband over Bree’s shoulders with a look of pure contempt. One that only grew at the sight of how unmoved he seemed by the display as if Bree’s sadness was an obstacle to overcome rather than a sign that something was wrong.
She remembered how long it had taken until she was able to work out some semblance of words between the heartbroken sobbing of her daughter. She had determined that Bree, Adam, and Leo had attempted to apologise to Chase but were foiled by Marcus, who had a few choice words to say to them about the way they had been treating his brother (apparently, he had made it quite clear to emphasise that Chase was his family now).
“Bree, Honey,” Tasha cooed, running her fingers through Bree’s hair in an attempt to calm her, “Talk to me.”
She had managed to draw Bree over to the couch and allowed her to rest in her arms, quietly humming a tune as she slightly rocked her back and forth, tightening her arms around her as if trying to transfer some of her own energy to the young girl.
Bree pulled her head out of the crook of Tasha’s neck to meet her gaze, her cheeks were tear-stained and Tasha’s heart broke, “He was scared.”
“What?”
“When we talked to Chase, he was scared of us,” Bree let out a shallow breath and shook her head as if trying to shake the memory from her mind but couldn’t seem to hold herself together for long, “My little brother is scared of me, Mom.”
Bree cried and Tasha held her for what felt like hours.
The only words her daughter could muster between her sobs consisted of ‘my baby brother’.
While she had only been in their lives for a few years, and she didn’t fully understand the relationship that the three bionic teenagers had with one another, Tasha assumed that Bree was relatively unconcerned about Adam and Chase unless they were in mortal danger, of course.
“Oh, baby,” She would sigh and tighten her arms around the young girl, briefly ruminating on the methods she could use to curse her poor excuse of a husband to hell and back.
When Tasha had finally ventured down to the lab, a place she didn’t often like to be with its lifeless and almost clinical feeling, she saw Adam on the floor in his capsule with his eyes screwed shut and his arms crossed defiantly over his chest.
“Adam? Sweetie?” She had called out to him hesitantly, approaching slowly as if he were a wild animal, “Do you wanna come out here for me?”
“No,” The thickness of his voice and the way his lips trembled were enough to make her want to throttle her husband.
Adam was a lot like her in ways she herself hadn’t even realised until now. He had a habit of bottling up his negative emotions, opting instead for humour and faux confidence. He never wanted to bother anyone if he felt bad. He sometimes didn’t even know why he felt so bad, all he knew was that it annoyed Mr Davenport when he wasn’t happy so he always had to be happy.
It broke her heart to see.
“Honey, Bree told me what happened today, we can talk about it if you want.”
There was a moment of silence before he responded.
“Tasha?”
“Yes?”
“Why do you love Mr. Davenport?”
“I’m not sure I do anymore if I’m being honest with you, honey,” Tasha sighed and sat down on the floor beside Adam’s capsule, leaning her head back against the glass of Chase’s old capsule, it had already begun collecting dust, “He’s not a very good father, is he?”
She knew that it wasn’t the best idea to unload her complicated feelings for her husband onto a teenager that was clearly suffering himself but she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him, not about this.
“He’s not a good husband, either,” Adam said, his tone considerate, for once not treating on eggshells for fear of anger but rather fear of hurting Tasha’s feelings, “Bree makes us watch all those cheesy romance movies where the guy tells the girl how much he loves her all the time, and Mr Davenport doesn’t really treat you that nicely.”
“...no, I suppose he doesn’t.”
“I think you deserve a better husband.”
“You’re probably right, I think you deserve a better father.”
“...Tasha?”
She hummed in response.
“I really miss Chase.”
“I miss him too.”
Even so, it had taken Tasha some convincing for her to request the divorce papers. She still couldn’t quite bring herself to put pen to paper and make it official. The love she had developed for Donald was holding her hostage, restraining her from making a decision, a decision she knew would prove to be correct.
She couldn’t help it, she still had hope that he could change, that he would realise his wrongdoings, that the way he treated their son was wrong and he would be the man she thought she had married.
She loved Donald.
Truly, she did.
It was difficult for her to imagine that some semblance of love for him would ever fully disappear but he had proven, time and time again, that he was incapable of truly loving anyone but himself (and his creepy computer). It had never occurred to her that he could be so heartless as to abandon his own son.
Even so, she could’ve given him another chance if he had been willing.
Until she thought of Leo.
Leo who looked up to Donald as a mentor and confidante, who idolised him.
Leo who could barely stand to be in the same room as his step-father anymore without anger and disgust rising to the surface.
Leo who despised him for chasing off his brother and best friend, who loved Chase without condition.
Donald had broken her baby boy’s heart without hesitation, and that she could never forgive.
Tasha walked into the house, her arms laden with groceries, only to be greeted with the sound of her son, her baby, crying on the couch. She could hear, in the distance, Donald ranting and raving about ‘disrespect’ and ‘my house, my rules’ and she knew, instantly, that he had done something irreparable to her boy.
“Leo, angel,” Much like with Adam, she approached as if he were a scared animal in need of rescuing. When he was upset, her son tended to be quite fragile - fragile in the way a bomb is fragile and needed to be handled with a lot of care, “What happened?”
He said nothing and simply stared into space until his cries slowly ceased.
“I can’t help if I don’t know what happened.”
“He wants to give me bionics.”
“What?”
Tasha was furious, she couldn’t fathom of world in which Donald thought he could get away with giving Leo bionics without her permission.
Leo’s voice shook which only increased her anger tenfold, “He said that Adam was right and they needed the brains to get missions done so he decided to duplicate Chase’s chip and find a way to give it to me.”
“Did he now?”
Leo looked up and only then did he see the pure rage in his mother’s eyes. It made him flinch. There was only time he had seen her that angry and that was when he was bullied and she had confronted Principal Perry about her clear leniency towards Trent and his friends.
He was well aware of the fact that his mom was a force to be reckoned with, especially when it came to him, and so he considered praying for Big D’s life but thought better of it.
Reaping what you sow and all that.
“I’ll deal with him later,” She had said ominously and joined him on the couch, he found himself calming as she pulled him into her embrace, “Something tells me that there’s more to the story, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to but I’m always going to be in your corner, you know that.”
“...He told me that I should stop complaining, that I should be grateful that he’s making me useful and now I won’t be in the way anymore.”
Tasha clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white, “I see.”
She could try but she would never be able to unsee the sight of her baby boy rocking himself back and forth on the couch, consoling himself as her husband’s words were without a doubt echoing inside his head on a loop.
This was it, their breaking point, the point of no return for their marriage.
She hadn’t noticed Adam and Bree’s presence until now, she noted that they were looking up at her with an essence of fear mixed with what she hoped to be respect, “Kids, pack bag, only the important stuff so Adam, no consoles.”
“Why?” Bree’s tone betrayed her suspicion and she couldn’t fault the girl for being wary.
“...because we’re leaving.”
Tasha never expected to feel so at ease, not even the run-down, dusty motel room couldn’t dampen her spirits.
It wasn’t a permanent home, that much was clear, but it was good enough for now. She hadn’t given their future much thought, hadn’t considered where they would go, only that she needed to get herself and those kids as far away from Donald Davenport as she physically could.
She had been tempted to simply take Leo and run for the hills but the guilt she would have felt at leaving Adam and Bree, after already losing Chase, would have brought her to her knees. Even with their bionics to help them, they may not have made it out unscathed.
Where they would go now or what she would do was still a mystery to Tasha; yet she felt optimistic, for the first time in a long while, she wasn’t dependent on her husband for her happiness and the feeling that erupted in her chest could only be described as pure relief.
It always seemed to be on the most mundane of days that the most monumental things tend to happen. It had been a routine trip to the grocery to pick up some essentials that Tasha happened to run into Douglas Davenport.
She was wary. Why wouldn’t she be, this was the man who had blown up her house and tried to kill her children but she saw none of that in the man who stood before her.
He greeted her with an awkward, closed-mouthed smile and a cheery “Tasha!” and she was taken aback at just how much he resembled Chase. While she may not fully understand the intricacies of how Chase, and Bree and Adam, came to be, she was convinced that he had had more of a hand in the process than she had initially been told.
“I’m well,” She said.
It was strange to see Douglas now, the only other time she had ever interacted with the man had been during his attempted harming of her son. According to the kids, however, he had seemingly turned from a psychotic, supervillain into a model father who had nothing but Marcus and Chase’s best interests at heart.
The corner of her mouth quirked up at the thought that Chase could finally fully and wholeheartedly rely on somebody.
She was glad.
Chase deserved that more than anyone.
Douglas could tell that his name was on the tip of her tongue, that she so desperately wanted to bring up the boy they both loved so dearly so he decided to take pity on her, “Chase wanted to try out this new recipe he found online so we’re picking up supplies.”
She brightened at the possibility of seeing Chase, unable to resist the urge to glance around in hopes of catching a glimpse of the face she hadn’t seen in months.
For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine Chase and Douglas cooking in the kitchen, seamlessly working with and around each other. That had been their thing, she would never forget the countless evenings she had spent in front of the stove with Chase chopping vegetables by her side.
She could never forget how attentively he paid attention when she would walk him through even the simplest of recipes.
“Marcus and I,” He clarified. “Chase still has his head stuck in his homework, he started reading when we were getting ready to leave and, as I’m sure you know, not even an earthquake will pull that boy from a book, you know how he gets.”
“Yes, I do,” She smiled to herself. Tasha revelled in the smallest piece of news about her youngest. It broke her that she wasn’t able to be around him, that she couldn’t ask about his day or listen to his latest rambles, but she was relieved that he was finally getting the love and recognition that he so deserved, “Well, it was lovely seeing Douglas, but I should be getting back to Leo now.”
“And the others, I presume.”
“Pardon?”
Douglas cleared his throat, his cheeks were flushed and he was looking awfully caught out, “Turns out that Adam essentially accosted Marcus in the hallway at school the other day and told him all about you leaving my brother, that was a brave thing to do, Tasha.”
She shook off the compliment, “It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination but I wasn’t going to let Donald keep hurting those kids, he already pushed Chase away so it was only a matter of time.”
Douglas nodded in understanding and a thought came to mind, “I don’t know if you’ve got a permanent place to stay sorted out yet but we moved into a new place before Chase came to us and we’ve got plenty of room to spare, and I know for a fact that the kid misses you.”
“He does?”
Douglas’ expression was dead pan, he looked incredibly unimpressed at the surprise in her voice, “You’re his mother, Tasha, he misses you like crazy but he had to…”
“I know, I don’t blame him...he knows that, right?”
“We don’t tend to talk about it very often but you’re free to tell him that yourself.”
Tasha shook her head and tried to convince herself that she wasn’t dismissing the idea outright due to fear but she couldn’t kid herself. She had been going over interactions she had had with Chase in the weeks leading up to him leaving, agonising over her action, or lack thereof; wondering whether there was something she could’ve done to get him to stay.
“I couldn’t just leave the kids on their own,” was the flimsy reason she offered for her decline.
One look at Douglas told her that he thought she was being ridiculous, “They could come too.”
She was still apprehensive. Chase had found a good home, the last thing she wanted to do was barge in and interrupt his newly found peace, yet part of her yearned to see him again. “Are you sure he’d be alright with that, you know, seeing them again?”
Douglas shrugged, “He already sees them enough in school, and if it means he gets to see you then it would be worth it.”
He sounded so sure that it didn’t take much convincing to get her to agree; she longed to see him again if only to tell him that Donald didn’t speak for her, that she loved him, bionics or not.
Just as they had exchanged numbers, a tall man with light brown hair and a bright, almost infectious grin rounded the corner of the aisle and caught sight of Douglas. Tasha could’ve sworn his eyes were sparkling and his grin, somehow, grew tenfold upon seeing Douglas; she couldn’t help but feel envious, doubtful that Donald had ever looked at her that way.
The man sauntered over and threw a casual arm over Douglas’ shoulders, “There you are Doug, Marcus can’t remember if it’s soya, coconut, or oat milk that Chase wanted so we got all three. That should be fine, right?”
He paused when his gaze caught on Tasha’s as if he had been so focused on Douglas that he had only just noticed her presence, “Hi, I’m Jack.”
“Tasha,” She smiled at the genuine affection Jack seems to display towards her and, presumably, most people he met. Perhaps she should be concerned or apprehensive about a man she’s only just met having evidently spent a decent about of time with her son but the pure goodness radiated from him like a ray of sunlight.
Douglas took over the introductions, “Tasha is Chase’s mother, and this is Jack, my partner.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Jack returned the sentiment, that bright grin back on his face, “As lovely as it’s been meeting you, I need to track down that wayward boy of ours, my dad-senses of tingling and I’m willing to bet that he’s done something that we will inevitably have to pretend to be annoyed by.”
Douglas agreed and waved him off, “I’ll meet you both at the car.”
“Yes, sir,” He saluted and winked at Tasha before retreating back around the same corner.
“So…” She said uncertainly, “Partner?”
Douglas grinned with unadulterated happiness, “Yeah, it’s relatively new but it’s fun and it just feels right, you know.”
“No, not really,” She admitted with some reluctance, “I’m not sure if it’s ever felt right for me, I thought it did with Donald but I don’t know.”
“Give it time, you’re a free woman now, Tasha, you never know what revelations or realisations you might uncover.”
It wasn’t until she had the groceries loaded into the car that Tasha allowed herself to truly consider his words. It had been Donald for her for so long that she had never considered anyone else. He had swept her off her feet and that had been that.
There was no getting around the fact that she loved Donald. Even for all his misgivings, she had wholeheartedly loved once.
She had loved Leo’s father, if only for the fact that he gave her the greatest gift of all.
She allowed herself to wonder; had there been others? Had she fallen in love without even realising?
She considered Charlotte Rivers, her confident and occasionally selfish best friend who, from the moment she introduced them, had despised her husband. Charlotte had always seen something in Donald that she didn’t quite like and Tasha could never understand why.
They hadn’t spoken in a while, not since she had moved in with Donald, and she regretted allowing their friendship to decay.
She definitely loved her, there was no doubt about that, she was her best friend at the end of the day.
It’s not as if she had feelings for her, it was how best friends were.
It was normal for best friends to sleep in the same bed.
It was normal for best friends to hold hands and hug.
It was normal for best friends to practice kissing.
It was normal for best friends to get jealous over romantic partners. She had never seemed to gel with any of Charlotte’s ex-partners but that was normal.
Tasha decided that any potential revelations needed to be put on pause for the time being. She was too busy reuniting a family.
Any reservations she may have found herself having about taking Adam, Bree, and Leo to Douglas’s house completely disappeared when she told them. They were so excited about the prospect of seeing Chase again that she had to fight the urge to load them all into the car straight away.
Tasha could hardly recall the last time she had seen Leo so obviously excited, he was practically bouncing off the walls. Bree seemed to be focusing all of her energy into controlling her superspeed or else she would have been doing exactly that.
Adam, on the other hand, simply sat on the edge of one of the beds with the widest grin on his face.
After the three of them had gone to sleep for the night, Tasha thought back to Douglas’s words and, in a split-second decision, pulled her phone out and scrolled until she found the contact she was looking for.
“Charlotte? Hi, it’s Tasha.”
Tasha hated to admit it but she was conflicted.
It had been five weeks since they had left and Donald still had yet to attempt to contact her.
She was relieved that she wouldn’t yet be dragged into a custody battle. Donald might try and get all of the kids returned to him but she knew it would be an uphill battle for the both of them; Adam and Bree would be put through the wringer and that was bad enough but she wondered if he would try to take Leo too, as the final nail in the coffin.
And yet she was disappointed. They had been married for three years and had dated for almost two and a half before that and he hadn’t attempted to contact her once.
She would have to contemplate further on that later.
Douglas’s front door swung open and she was greeted with Marcus’s smiling face. She wondered if Douglas purposefully chose to make Marcus resemble him so subtly because she could almost see Douglas in Marcus’s wide grin.
“Hi, Tasha!”
She responded in kind.
Marcus seemed like such a nice boy. She had only him as the new kid, one of the first friends that the kids had made in school. She had only known of him through Chase’s excitable rambling about the cool new kid, and Leo’s pessimistic grumbling about how something wasn’t quite right about him.
She didn’t recognise either of those descriptions in the young man who stood before her. He wasn’t an innocent angel of a boy nor was he a cold, calculated villain; if anything, he seemed to be a frankly unassuming and slightly guarded young man.
He welcomed her in and took her coat, closing the front door behind her. He pointed down the hallway, “Dad’s in the kitchen with Chase.”
She nodded and followed closely behind. The house wasn’t huge by any means so the walk to the kitchen was a long one but her nerves made her feel as though she’d been walking for hours.
Marcus paused when they neared the kitchen and his shoulders tensed. He turned around to face Tasha with a nervous look in his eyes, “You’re not going to hurt him, are you? Chase, I mean, because it took a while before he could talk about you without looking really sad and I don’t want that to happen again, because you seem nice, Tasha, so I don’t want to hate you for hurting him.”
“I won’t,” She promised. “Marcus, I never wanted him to leave, I fought against Donald the whole time. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why he left but he’s my son regardless and I love him, that’s why I’m here, I want him to know that.”
With his look of approval, she had a feeling that Marcus had dubbed himself Chase’s personal champion. She was glad, he deserved to have someone looking out for him, even against her.
She followed him through the door and, for the first time in months, caught sight of Chase. He was sat at the dinner table with what seemed to be a diamond painting was spread out in front of him and he was slowly and surely placing the gems down, a few at a time. His tongue poked out the side of his mouth in concentration, she chuckled and felt herself tear up slightly, Tasha never realised the little things that she missed about this boy, even if it had only been a few months.
Her laugh had caught Chase’s attention and his head shot up from his project. He seemed more than taken aback, he looked almost scared, as if she was going to drag him kicking and screaming back to Donald. It broke her heart to see him look so apprehensive.
“Hi,” Her voice was low and cautious. She approached the table as if she were trying not to spook a frightened animal.
Chase took a deep breath, evidently steeling himself for the incoming conversation, and offered a half-hearted if somewhat tense smile, “Do you want to help? I’ve only just started.”
Tasha recognised the offer for what it was. She was never going to refuse such an olive branch. She took the seat next to him and returned his tentative smile.
Tasha had excused herself from the kitchen, squeezing Chase’s shoulder as she stood up. She slipped her phone out of her pocket and dialled a phone number.
“It’s been hours ,” The voice on the other end whined and she could already picture the pout on their lips. “You promised an update as soon as possible.”
“And this is that update,” She responded, her tone soft.
An indignant huff sounded from the other end of the call.
“Charlotte!” She scolded with a laugh.
“Well, I was expecting something sooner,” Charlotte huffed and Tasha could almost picture her crossing her arms. “It’s not every day that your best friend leaves her deadbeat husband and reunites with her favourite son.”
“I don’t have favourites.”
“You do, and they all know it.”
“I-”
“He’s their favourite too so don’t worry about it,” Charlotte comforted. “They all know that you and him have a different relationship, like two peas in a pod. It doesn’t mean you love them any less.”
“When did you get so rational?”
“Probably in the time that you ignored me for months because Donald expected it.” Ouch . Tasha wasn’t proud of the months she had gone without contacting her friend. She only hoped it was possible to make it up to her sooner rather than later.
“Okay, I deserve that,” She conceded, reluctantly.
Charlotte sighed dramatically down the phone and Tasha could already imagine the adorable pout that was undoubtedly on her lips. “If you want to make it up to me, you could treat me to a coffee next week?”
“Oh, I see how it is,” She chuckled. “Using me for your caffeine intake.”
“You didn’t know? That’s why we’re friends, after all.”
Tasha smiled and bit her lip, “I’ll pick you up money after I drop the kids off.”
“Good,” She could hear Charlotte’s grin. “It’s a date.”
Tasha said goodbye, hung up and slipped her phone back into her pocket with a grin on her face. Speaking with Charlotte and the thought of grabbing coffee with her had made her feel unexpectedly giddy.
She popped her head back into the kitchen and frowned. Chase wasn’t there. How long had she been on the phone for him to completely pack up his things, it hadn’t felt like it was that long of a conversation.
She wandered down the hall until she heard familiar voices coming from the living room. She turned the corner and came face to face with a scene that almost made her heart burst from her chest.
Douglas was splayed out over one of the couches, a book in one hand and a wine glass in the other. Jack, the man she recognised as Douglas’s partner, was perched on the arm of the couch, running his fingers through Douglas’s spiky hair.
Bree was curled up on the other end of the couch with her phone in her hand, texting away. Now and then, Bree would look up from her phone to check on Chase. Tasha wasn’t sure if Bree was checking he was alright or simply checking that he hadn’t disappeared.
Adam, too, often glanced up to check on Chase but his attention was reclaimed by the pomeranian on the ground in front of him. His name was Biscuit and Adam was transfixed.
Leo was sat in between Marcus and Chase in front of the television set. The television wasn’t nearly as large as the one that Donald had installed but she found herself preferring this one. She could see that Leo was beginning to come around Marcus and his presence but she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy road, her boy was as stubborn as they come.
“Tasha!” Jack exclaimed, his signature grin ever present on his face. “Come join us.”
She sat herself down in the huge armchair that stood next to the couch, “This is pretty cosy.”
“Get used to it,” Douglas laughed.
She tilted her head in confusion.
“Leo has announced that he isn’t leaving.”
She sent a weak glare to the back of her son’s head.
As if he could sense it, he turned out and looked sheepish, “Mom, all I said was we’d probably be over a lot more now that we’ve got Chase back. Douglas was the one that said that we may as well just move in.”
“Seriously?” She asked Douglas, an incredulous look on his face.
“It’s a big house, Tasha.” Douglas shrugged. “It’s not like we haven’t got the room. Plus, if I knew his mother was basically on the streets and I did nothing about it, Chase would have my head.”
“I would,” Chase piped up. He turned around and smiled at Tasha, “I want you to stay.”
And that was that. It didn’t take much convincing after Chase had affirmed that he wanted them there. He wanted her to stay and she couldn’t bring herself to deny him. Tasha decided at that moment that this was a life she could get used it. Douglas, Jack, and her, and their weird, mashed-up family.
“Thank you,” She said over breakfast one morning. It was out of the blue so she could understand Douglas’s confused expression.
“For what?”
“For letting us stay, for giving him a proper home, for loving him.”
Douglas and Tasha looked down the length of the breakfast table. Chase was smiling and laughing at Adam’s antics, and dodging well-aimed pieces of pancakes from Bree.
“He’s my boy,” Douglas smiled.
Tasha nodded in agreement, “I’ll never understand…”
“Understand what?”
“Why Donald couldn’t love him, like really love him.”
“I don’t think Donnie is capable of loving anyone but himself and the things he creates. For him, love is a competition,” His disappointment in his brother was palpable. She thought to ask about their childhood but she wondered what kind of relationship the two brothers had had to seemingly hate each other so much.
She nodded again and returned her attention to the kids at the other end of the breakfast table. She hadn’t realised how tense it had been with Donald until she saw how carefree they all were at that moment. She would’ve loved to keep talking about Donald but she had a more important question to ask Douglas.
“How did you know you liked men?”
Douglas choked on his coffee, “Well, come right out and say it why don’t you? Why do you ask?”
“I, it’s just that-”
“It’s that woman, isn’t it?”
“Woman?” Tasha knew there was no point playing dumb but she wasn’t sure how he had known about Charlotte.
Douglas rolled his eyes but there was no malice or annoyance in his expression, “You were practically skipping when you came back from lunch the other day so either something happened with this woman that you’re always on the phone with or you were high as a kite. I’m going to assume it’s the former.”
“You are irritatingly observant.”
“Thank you.”
“We are…” She considered her words. “...testing the waters, I guess you could say.”
Douglas stayed silent, allowing her to continue on her own accord.
“I’m interested, she seems to be too but I’m not even legally divorced yet and I’ve only ever dated men. I’m scared to get it wrong.”
Douglas sighed in a way that told her that he had once shared her fears. “There’s no right or wrong way to be queer or gay or bisexual, or whatever you want or don’t want to label yourself as. It’s as simple as ‘do I like this person?’ and ‘do they like me?’. That’s all there is to it.”
“I had no idea that you were so wise.”
“It’s a gift and a curse.”
“Hello? Earth to Tasha?” Charlotte called, a teasing lilt to her voice.
Tasha looked up from the papers and smiled. “What are you doing here?”
“We’re taking the kids to the theme park, remember?”
She, in fact, did not remember.
Charlotte shook her head in comic disbelief, her red curls fell over her shoulders and Tasha found it difficult to focus on anything she was attempting to say.
“Come on, love,” Charlotte grinned. “I’m pretty sure Chase is causing World War Three in there because he keeps betting that Adam can’t do stuff.”
Tasha shook her head. It was moments like this that made her briefly consider whether reuniting the siblings was the best idea, but then she saw the uncontrollable smiles and thrilled expressions on their faces, and she knew she had made the right call.
“Let me finish up in here and I’ll be right out.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Charlotte gave her a thumbs up gesture and dramatically skipped out of the room with a laugh.
Tasha watched her disappear and gave one final glance over the paperwork before she effortlessly printed her signature at the bottom of the document.
Donald Davenport was on his own.
Tasha Dooley was a free woman once more.